Publishing Industry Terms

Hi - I thought the following Terms might be helpful for those just getting interested in self-publishing their work - especially for our newly formed ABCs Etsy Street Team!

Publishing Industry Terms

BISAC Subject Codes
Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) Subject Codes are standard categories used by the book-selling industry to categorize books.

ISBN
An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique 10- or 13-digit number assigned to every book that identifies its binding, edition and publisher. ISBNs are obtained from R.R. Bowker, the US ISBN agency, or the International ISBN Agency.

Bleed
Bleed is extra image or background that extends beyond the trim marks of a page. It should not include any "live" elements that cannot be cut during the final stages of the printing process. When an image is intended to be printed to the edge of a page, it should extend at least 1/8" off the edge so that when the page is trimmed, small variations in the trim won't result in a white line down the edge of the page.

Grayscale
A photo or image made up of varying tones of black and white. Images to be printed in black and white should be converted to grayscale prior to addition to the printed work.

Full-color
Printing using a combination of inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, or CMYK) to achieve all possible varieties of visual color.

CMYK
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) are the four printer colors used to create full-color prints. Combining each of these four colors in varying proportions allows you to create the full color spectrum.

RGB
Red, Green, Blue (RGB) is the color spectrum used by color monitor displays and TVs. The combination and intensities of these three colors can represent the whole color spectrum. Digital images captured in color from most scanners or taken with a digital camera are in RGB color mode. Images in RGB color mode should be converted to CMYK for the printing process as RGB doesn't include a true black.

DPI
Dots per Inch (DPI) is a measure of image resolution. The higher the number, the sharper the image. For the highest quality printing, you should include images of at least 300 DPI in your book.

Image Resolution
Image resolution refers to picture detail or the actual number of pixels that are packed into a digital image. Resolution is defined as the number of pixels per square inch (ppi) or as the number of dots per square inch (dpi). For all practical purposes in discussing resolution, pixels and dots are essentially interchangeable.

Trim Size
The size of your final book after it is printed, bound and trimmed. Trim sizes are always indicated as width in inches by height in inches. For example, a trim size of 6"x9" means the printed book will be 6 inches wide and 9 inches tall.

Trade Paperback
Refers to a paperback book bound with a heavy paper cover.